Ryan Reynolds Confirmed For ‘Highlander’ Reboot

After seemingly landing a pair of key roles in potential franchises as Wade Wilson/Deadpool for Twentieth Century Fox’s X-Men series and as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern for the “next big thing” for DC Entertainment and Warner Bros., star Ryan Reynolds seemingly has his comic book roles on the back burner.

The star of this year’s Safe House and next year’s R.I.P.D. has also landed what may be another long-term franchise role as the next Highlander, to be directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later).

Christopher Lambert famously starred in the original cult hit Highlander and its two sequels, before passing the torch to TV star Adrian Paul for the six-season Highlander TV series following the character of Duncan MacLeod and its unsuccessful spin-off Highlander: The Raven with Amanda Darieux. Lambert and Paul joined forces, officially merging the continuities of their characters and stories for Highlander: Endgame, before the franchise sizzled away after Paul and his TV co-stars returned for one last go with Highlander: The Source.

Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul in Highlander: Endgame

With the Lionsgate-Summit Entertainment merger promising a larger focus on franchising key brands, producers Neal Moritz – who’s working with Reynolds on R.I.P.D. and did so with The Change-Up and Peter Davis – the man behind all of the Highlander projects, aim to make Highlander and its story about sword-wielding immortals a mainstream hit with Reynolds as their leading man.

For fans of Reynolds’ other work, we wonder what this means for any potential of him suiting up soon for that other buzzed about project with a hard-to-kill sword-swinging protagonist: Deadpool. And more importantly, are we going to see Reynolds sport long locks like his predecessor? Is he going to rock a fake Scottish accent in flashbacks as part of the Clan MacLeod?

We can at least say Highlander has a director and leading man who can both deliver action. The question is if they can deliver a story and a character we’re willing to care about for years to come.

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As an actual (non-immortal) highlander, it would be great to see a Scots actor get the role. I can very easily envisage McKidd in an actual Highand setting, but not when the action fast forwards to the present day.

I don’t like Reynolds at all as an actor, he comes across as an arrogant, unlikeable a-hole. Yet I can’t deny his considerable acting skills and physicality. He was a revelation in ‘Buried’, and was likewise immense with Denzel in ‘Safe House’. As a Canadian, i’d be surprised if he couldn’t pull off a Scottish accent, so I think he can pull this off. It could be inspired and the making of him.

I don’t rate Butler as an actor at all. He seems content to pick up sizeable cheques for work that is dramatically unchallenging.

The only other actors that I can think of a at the moment are the previously mentioned, underrated Thomas Jane and English actor Clive Owen. Perhaps Tom Hardy also!

This is hollywood Piggybacking off Ryan Reynolds fame & his momentum going into DeadPool. Instead of looking for the right choice to play in the Reboot, hollywood uses him to guarantee people will go see it.

Golly, how many more movies is Ryan Reynolds going to destroy? NO disrespect to the guy because he can act but he is not box office draw at all. He must be desperate to have a big franchise or hit under his belt but I can’t seem to think of him as VAN WILDER for the rest of his career. I hope he can prove me wrong but keep him away from established franchises. A Jason Statham Highlander movie with Chow-Yun Fat as the bad guy would kill at the movie theaters. Just my 2 cents.

I hope they introduce a new Macleod clansman and that he’s not playing Connor or Duncan. Personally, I’d like to see Gerard Butler play one of the new Macleods even though I know there are folks who aren’t keen on him but he fits the Scotsman clan better than RR (of course that’s because he is a Scotsman).

I do wish Duncan could’ve gotten a decent ending compared to the Source crap. His character in the series was very interesting all the way until Season 5 and then series just got weird.

Also, the series Highlander pilot has Connor in it as Duncan’s “cousin” and the two have a great sword fight so the continuity was there from the beginning. Though I think Highlander II is just ignored all together.

I was a big fan of Ryan Reynolds but Hollywood over-saturated audiences with him for too long. Had the movies been better, it might have been worth it but there’ve been too many forgettable roles for me to want to go see the newest of his movies (whatever that might be). Also, his method of acting (fast-talking sarcastic anti-hero) doesn’t seem to work with the Highlander mythology.

I’m sure if there was an internet back in the 80s, most people would’ve said “how can a French guy play a Scotsman? This is BS, screw you Highlander!”

As it stands, Lambert did a decent job and it propelled him to the mainstream for a short while (I won’t even talk about the other guy who starred in the tv series and subsequent tv movies cause honestly, they sucked) so who’s to say Reynolds would do a horrible job?

As long as the writing, directing, editing and acting are even semi-decent, I predict it could be a minor hit at the very least. Lets not all blame Ryan because even if he did an amazing job in the role, if the other aspects I mentioned suck then it’ll drag the entire movie down.

I would just like to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone on the internet for all the complaining I’ve done over the years every time a new remake or reboot was announced. I’m sure that’s been very annoying, and I promise not to do it this time. Thanks, and enjoy.

Awwwwwwwww, man! I truely was looking forward to this, not anymore. Ryan Reynolds……really? I can think of 10 actors of the top of my head that would make a better Highlander…..i seriously cant express how disapointing this is.

SERIOUSLY!?! ANOTHER BLASTED ‘REBOOT’? Anybody want to place bets on how badly this remake will be? I know the original wasn’t outstanding but c’mon, and then you cast Ryan Reynolds in the title role? Hasn’t this guy proven that you need some actual acting TALENT?

No No No – Hollywood quit ruining good movies by rebooting with actors during this generation to try and make a buck or two. Come up with your own idea idiots. I can come up with a movie better than these hollywood chumps ever could.

No, no, no, no !!! He was in Blade 3, X-men origins, the horrible ( awesome special effects) Green Lantern; and now HIGHLANDER ? Sorry, ain’t going to work. Ryan needs to take a time out from hollywood. The man doesn’t know how to say no to a role. I’ll give him this, he’s got two things going for him, he’s good looking , and have one hell of an agent to get him these roles; but seriously, he is not HIGHLANDER…unless they plan to give us a comedy take on it. I’ll wait to watch this on dvd.

Please say it aint so.the movie will SUCK.I totally agree Please get a Scottish even Irish actor to play the role.Highlander is my All time Favorite movie.Ryan will ruin it he should just work on Deadpool&Green Lantern.PLEASE RETHINK THIS.

Look ryan reynolds is one of my all time fav celebs. The dude tho has jus bin makin bad serious movie choices . Hes great in comedies. I.e. green lantern was not supposed ta make u feel like it was a comedy. Change up was hilarious. Deadpool was not supposed to b a mute puppet wit Baraka blades. Proposal was funny. C ryan stick wit comedies. Not for nutin tho its not his fault. I jus think whenever he lands a role the producers n director try to tailor it to ryans style. But look how thats turned out. Ugggh last thing, i wuld luv to c him in a solo deadpool movie. I jus think hes the perfect fit.

When they really do a reboot, there is only one actor I could accept as Duncan MacLeod, and that is Gerard Butler (yea, and he really is scottish, wow, what a coincidence 😉 He looks much more badass than Christopher Lambert (as much as I love the first movie, he was miscast as a highland warrior, IMO).

But Clancy Brown as Kurgan and the queen-soundtrack was so awesome, they can’t be replaced.